Hi Friends!

When I started teaching the sixth grade I remember feeling anxious about how my Literacy Block would look like. In my board- we are to have 100 minutes of Literacy and Math per day. I was a little nervous trying to navigate how this would look at a Junior level. All I knew was the Primary Daily 5.

After consulting with collegues, peers, the beautiful blogs that so many of us post, and ultimately- trial and error with students- I came up with this working document of what my literacy block looks like.

I have to say- so far- I’m in year two of Grade 6- it works! I’ve tweaked it along the way, but over all I really like the process we’ve got going in our class.

100 Minute Literacy Block (Middle School)

10 minutes- Independent Reading. During this time I conference with students and work on ‘conversation’ questions for summative assessments- more on triangulation of assessment later. I swap this out for read alouds twice per week

30 minutes- WORDS groups- Literacy rotations. Here is where I do my “Guided Reading” or “Guided Writing” time. I have five focused groups – based on scores and levels for this one, in which I meet with ONCE per week. We focus on a reading comprehension strategy, or writing strategy- based on what we are focusing in reading or writing during that week.

I have the acronym WORDS because I love puns. I make a slideshow for the week and display this with a timer in the class so everyone knows exactly what they are to be doing at this time. I will blog about the accountability of this process at a later date.

*All the above are connected to specific expectations (Or standards for those who use them)*

30 minutes Mini Reading Lesson (Shared, Modelled or Independent)

Here is where I do specific and focused reading lessons, and students have the opportunity to engage in modelled, shared (partner work) and independent work based on the standard and lesson covered. My units are all arranged with a modelled lesson, shared lesson, and indepdenent lesson per concept being discussed.

30 minutes Mini Writing Lesson (Shared, Modelled or Independent)

Here is where I do specific and focused writing lessons, and students have the opportunity to engage in modelled, shared (partner work) and independent work based on the standard and lesson covered.

That’s my literacy day! In our district of Ontario, Canada we have Oral and Media Literacy which I often incorporate into my WORDS groups.

I hope this was a helpful post! I remember really scouring the internet for ideas when I was starting out.

Until next time,

Ms. Goldenfairy